A former shipyard worker has been sentenced to six months in prison for stealing more than £30,000 worth of scrap metal from Harland and Wolff.

Colin Henry Calder, 56, from Alexander Park Avenue, Belfast, admitted 48 counts of theft from March 2011 to September 2012.

He removed the metal and sold it to a scrap yard beside H&W.

Calder took around 158 metric tonnes of scrap metal from his then employers and received cheques amounting to £30,108.

A defence lawyer said his client committed an "unsophisticated crime". He also told the court that some of the money in question was "shared amongst fellow employees."

The judge said Calder breached his employer's trust and spoke of the "number of offences and the length of time over which they were committed" before passing a six-month prison sentence.

Calder is the second man to be imprisoned for similar offences. Earlier this month, former H&W manager Hugh Hutchinson, 57, from Sheringhurst Park, Belfast, was jailed for four months after pleading guilty to 41 counts of theft from the shipyard, in similar circumstances.